Study finds math test program results in gains

A math testing program used in San Diego that gives teachers prompt feedback on individual students can bring about significant gains in student achievement, according to a nonprofit think tank.

The Public Policy Institute of California report studied seven years of San Diego Unified School District data and found that the testing program led to gains that would increase a median student at the 50th percentile to the 57th percentile a year later.

Tests from the Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project were administered to middle and high school students in city schools in varying grade levels from 1999 through 2008 under a mandatory program instituted by former Superintendent Alan Bersin. Tests were taken in May or June and results were used to place students in math classes for the following year and identify struggling students for summer school consideration.

Researchers believe the district’s mandatory testing, which began in 1999, also caused math teachers at schools to work together on overcoming deficiencies that were identified, said Julian Betts, an economics professor at University of California San Diego and a Bren fellow at the institute who is a co-author of the report, which was issued this week.

All three authors of the report were affiliated with UCSD.

“One distinct possibility is that when the district mandated the use of these tests... that would encourage the entire math department to look at overall patterns and individual student’s strengths and weaknesses and come up with a game plan,” Betts said.

Betts said the study found repeated diagnostic monitoring across grades was important and that if a student took the test a second consecutive year the achievement benefits persisted.

The Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project is a joint effort by the California State University and University of California systems and provides free test materials for middle and high school teachers in subjects such as geometry readiness, pre-algebra and algebra readiness. This past year, it was used by more than 3,500 teachers.

Teachers usually get results back within a week of testing, which allows them to act quickly on what they learn about a student’s math skills. In comparison, results from the California Standards Test, which is used in the state’s school accountability system, aren’t available until after the school year ends.

San Diego Unified required the geometry readiness test in grades 8 and 9 for a number of years before phasing that out and requiring the pre-algebra and algebra readiness tests in grades 6 and 7.

Ron Rode, executive director of the office of accountability for the San Diego Unified School District, said the district dropped the mandatory testing because students were taking quarterly benchmark exams as well as state standards tests.

“Part of the criticism is that we are overtesting students so we need to have that balance between testing and getting accurate appropriate information so we can modify instruction,” he said.

Rode said the analysis done by the institute is welcomed and likely will inform discussions on future testing.

About a half dozen middle schools in San Diego Unified continue to test “cohorts” or entire grade levels of students, while dozens of schools are doing it on a voluntary basis. A follow-up survey of middle school teachers is underway, Betts said.

Nellie Meyer, the district’s deputy superintendent of academics, said the diagnostic tests have been used in district high schools for years and are “a wonderful assessment” that teachers and schools use to gauge what’s being learned in classrooms and also help in placement decisions.

Betts said the report highlights the value of quick turnaround of test results and the benefits of computerized testing.

The report was co-authored by Youjin Hahn, an assistant professor at Monash University in Australia, and Andrew Zau, a senior statistician for the San Diego Education Research Alliance at UCSD.